B'44....Heavy Tank Bn. 506...is it in the game?

HirooOnoda · 01-03-2008, 02:36 PM,

I've played quite a bit of B'44 but if my memory serves me correctly the only King Tiger Bn in the game is 501 with KG Pieper.

Yet I read in Sledgehammers, an excellent book about the Tiger Bns throughout the war, that the 506 was also in the Ardennes and sees action on December 17th and 18th against the 14th Cav and at St. Vith.

I don't recall seeing any other K. Tiger bn other than the 501 in the game.

Ideas? Comments?

~~Krak~~ · 01-03-2008, 03:37 PM,

There are definitely 2 KT battalions, both with about 30 tanks each. The second must be the 506.

**Ricky B** · 01-03-2008, 04:36 PM,

Yep, and an easy way to find a specific component is search in the OOB for the component name - do that in the Bulge OOB for Tiger and you will get 4 hits - 1 VIe Tiger, 2 King Tigers, and a Sturm Tiger or something like that.

Rick

FM WarB · 01-04-2008, 03:34 AM,

You will find the 506 Schw. Panzer Bn attached to 6th Army and entering on the 20th in most scenarios, which would be historicly accurate. I do not know if they enter in a depleted status to reflect rail transport and mechanical difficulties.

Glenn Saunders · (This post was last modified: 01-05-2008, 10:41 AM by Glenn Saunders.)

FM WarB Wrote:You will find the 506 Schw. Panzer Bn attached to 6th Army and entering on the 20th in most scenarios, which would be historicly accurate. I do not know if they enter in a depleted status to reflect rail transport and mechanical difficulties.

I believe our Max Strength for the unit is not the absolute TO&E Strength so if it enters at 100% it may reflect this Mean strength as many units - particularly the heavy one had vehicles out of service and if we set the OOB strength to be the true TO&E value then the German Replacement value - which is ONE Pdt % (which is 1%) for the side would or could bring the unit up to a overstrength position.

In any case we can't accurately reflect all the the minor ups and downs of unit tank strength - but we have a newer value now inthe OOB that can be assigned to certain units and we used that in Budapest with the s.Pz.Abt.503 - account for their record of higher than average ability to put more Tanks in service after battle damage, altoght I can't say for sure where this info came from. But we didn't have this feature when Bulge was creeated.

Glenn

HirooOnoda · 01-04-2008, 05:01 AM,

Well the book I have has the 506 in combat on the 17th.

That is why I haven't seen it, the game has them on the 20th.

I'm just curious why the 506 comes in on the 20th?

FM WarB · 01-04-2008, 06:37 AM,

Cole and MacDonald both have tigers from the 506th first appearing on the 17th at Andler. Nafziger and Parker, citing transport and mechanical difficulties have the batalion arriving on the 20th with eight operational tanks. The batalion commander was relieved of command for complaining about the piecemeal commitment of his batalion. I guess the ideal solutin would be to dribble them in as reduced strength companies.

HirooOnoda · 01-04-2008, 10:50 AM,

If Cole and MacDonald both have them present at the 17th that is pretty strong evidence.

It appears from the book Sledgehammers that they played an important part in blocking the retreat of the 106th.

rzhev42 · 01-04-2008, 12:39 PM,

According to the sPz Abt 506 War Diary, The unit started on its road march on 17 Dec (Hellenthal-Losheimer Graben-Schoenberg) skimishing in the town of Andler. The unit enter the fight with 41 Tigers of which 22 were operational. 2 Tigers were knocked out between 18-19 of Dec in Lulligen-Lellgen, and on 25 Dec the battalion had 36 operatrional Tigers.

This taken from "Tigers in Combat 1"

Michael Avanzini